Hiker photographs bear just before fatal grizzly attack

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/26/us/alaska-bear-attack/index.html

Hiker photographs bear just before fatal grizzly attack
By Alan Duke, CNN
updated 6:55 PM EDT, Sun August 26, 2012

...Photographs found in his camera revealed that White was watching the bear for at least eight minutes near a river before the attack.

"The bear was generally unaware that he was there until the last couple of shots, then his attention turned," park spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin said.

The photographs "are not that demonstrative" and show "nothing graphic, or any showing major signs of aggression," McLaughlin said. "We're not sure what happened after the camera was put down."...

I thought they would have the pictures of the bear. It is a shame they had to put the bear down because someone was intruding in the bear's space. I really hate to hear that. Anytime you are in their territory be it a bear, mountain lion or other wild animal, you have to respect their space.


*caution* irreverent bear joke
http://www.backwoodshome.com/humor/jokes57.html

Jacie Estes said:

I thought they would have the pictures of the bear. It is a shame they had to put the bear down because someone was intruding in the bear's space. I really hate to hear that. Anytime you are in their territory be it a bear, mountain lion or other wild animal, you have to respect their space.


*caution* irreverent bear joke
http://www.backwoodshome.com/humor/jokes57.html

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I know I shouldn't laugh, but Jacie, that was too funny! I am from Montana and thank goodness I never ran across a bear while hiking. We did however run across a moose in Colorado. We just backed away....LOL She was HUGE!!!!! Plus, she had a calf.

I don't agree with putting the bear down either, the man clearly invaded his place.

Jacie Estes said:

It is a shame they had to put the bear down because someone was intruding in the bear's space. I really hate to hear that. Anytime you are in their territory be it a bear, mountain lion or other wild animal, you have to respect their space.


*caution* irreverent bear joke
http://www.backwoodshome.com/humor/jokes57.html

Click to expand...

So where's our space? So when man stood up he looked out, saw a city and said "oh that must be "our space".

There is no "their space/our space". There's only one space and we all share it.

TrackerSam said:

So where's our space? So when man stood up he looked out, saw a city and said "oh that must be "our space".

There is no "their space/our space". There's only one space and we all share it.

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LOL

An intelligent person, particularly in Denali, should know the difference.

tezi said:

I know I shouldn't laugh, but Jacie, that was too funny! I am from Montana and thank goodness I never ran across a bear while hiking. We did however run across a moose in Colorado. We just backed away....LOL She was HUGE!!!!! Plus, she had a calf.

I don't agree with putting the bear down either, the man clearly invaded his place.

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I love that joke, the others were good, as well. We were back country camping in the Oquirrhs in Utah at about 7k; a lion came into our camp. We were lucky that day; had a gun ready just in case, but fortunately didn't need it. We have deer and lions in our area. You have to respect where you are. Remember the guy living with the bears in Alaska? He died with them.

Jacie Estes said:

I love that joke, the others were good, as well. We were back country camping in the Oquirrhs in Utah at about 7k; a lion came into our camp. We were lucky that day; had a gun ready just in case, but fortunately didn't need it. We have deer and lions in our area. You have to respect where you are. Remember the guy living with the bears in Alaska? He died with them.

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My husband and I just watched that movie or whatever it was when he was killed. He certainly didn't respect the bear's space.

Jacie Estes said:

LOL

An intelligent person, particularly in Denali, should know the difference.

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I guess that certainly leaves you out, people are allowed in Denali ( Today, the park hosts more than 400,000 visitors who enjoy wildlife viewing, mountaineering, and backpacking. Wintertime recreation includes dog-sledding, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling where allowed.) Sounds like the bears are in :giggle: "our space". I guess we should close Yosemti and Yellowstone as well.:floorlaugh: No more hiking for anyone. :floorlaugh: We should rewrite history books so we couldn't learn about Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone etc, and any other pioneer for traveling into "their space". LOL

TrackerSam said:

I guess that certainly leaves you out, people are allowed in Denali ( Today, the park hosts more than 400,000 visitors who enjoy wildlife viewing, mountaineering, and backpacking. Wintertime recreation includes dog-sledding, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling where allowed.) Sounds like the bears are in :giggle: "our space". I guess we should close Yosemti and Yellowstone as well.:floorlaugh: No more hiking for anyone. :floorlaugh: We should rewrite history books so we couldn't learn about Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone etc, and any other pioneer for traveling into "their space". LOL

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Exactly but, I reiterate, when you see a bear walk away. Got it? Most wildlife has been pushed away from their 'natural habitat' by development. Anyone who doesn't have the common sense to avoid a grizzly should wear a bell around their ankle and carry pepper spray.

BTW you're in their space. Besides, they don't like your smell.

Not sure why the animal was put down unless they are afraid that it will learn that humans are easy prey and make eating them a practice. I wonder if such a thing has ever proven true.

At any rate, grizzly bears are known to be rather ill-tempered and not to be trifled with. They got their name for a reason and polar bears might be as bad or worse. I believe that more people are actually killed by black bears but I think that's mainly because there are a lot more of those and they appear to be more approachable because of their size and apparent nature.

It is very tragic that a bear had to be put down because some idiot decided to ignore the rules and get too close to wildlife. This is the bear's home, period. I say stuff the tourist into a bus and drive their butts through the park and don't even let them out to even take a pee until they are back at the parking lot.

TrackerSam said:

I guess that certainly leaves you out, people are allowed in Denali ( Today, the park hosts more than 400,000 visitors who enjoy wildlife viewing, mountaineering, and backpacking. Wintertime recreation includes dog-sledding, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling where allowed.) Sounds like the bears are in :giggle: "our space". I guess we should close Yosemti and Yellowstone as well.:floorlaugh: No more hiking for anyone. :floorlaugh: We should rewrite history books so we couldn't learn about Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone etc, and any other pioneer for traveling into "their space". LOL

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Just because humans are intruding into the wildlife's space does not make it "
their space". If our "recreation" results in the death of wild animals then yes, get idiots out of the wild.

TrackerSam said:

I guess that certainly leaves you out, people are allowed in Denali ( Today, the park hosts more than 400,000 visitors who enjoy wildlife viewing, mountaineering, and backpacking. Wintertime recreation includes dog-sledding, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling where allowed.) Sounds like the bears are in :giggle: "our space". I guess we should close Yosemti and Yellowstone as well.:floorlaugh: No more hiking for anyone. :floorlaugh: We should rewrite history books so we couldn't learn about Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone etc, and any other pioneer for traveling into "their space". LOL

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Looks to me like these intruders should sign a contract stating that if they intrude on wildlife and are killed or injured as a result, that there be no retaliation against the animal involved. Yes, before you insinuate that I'm not intelligent, I know why the bear had to be killed (because he would not be "afraid" of humans and maybe would kill another idiot in his territory".

The other nite there was a woman with a flashlite in my yard, it was thought there was a baby bear running around with no momma. Couple of nites later about 1am i hear this sleerpy wierd sound bears make, so me and my plate of bacon and eggs midnight snack( i was thinking i could i could attract the poor little baby bear) walked into the road(hwy actually) baby to the left,somewhere within the next 2 short driveways.
Then i hear a crack, look right, momma bear charged, that was an interesting experiance.
I'm guessing it the same momma bear that a couple of years ago had 2 cubs ,she left her cubs up the trees behind my back yard, when she returned, momma would nap by the fence. So for that summer i did not use my back yard. i did do the bang the pans noise thing, seems she felt i was calling her for dinner, over the fence she came.(brown bears)

Conservation would do nothing, the population of the town is 10,ooo

I agree with culling,the Denali bear was over confidant, when i lived in the boonies, see a bears, mutual respect, walk away from each other.
The man was taking pics - he was in the open- no threat 50-100yards(average trailer is lenth 60-70ft) 0ne yard=3ft so (some people use football fields-i use trailers to judge distance)so 20 yards one trailer? So he was 2-3 or more trailers away- that bear's attitude was the problem.
Just like people, bears, dogs, cats, whatever-some just ain't nice to get along with- we put people in jail for murder, i think the rules should be the same for all life forms.
Bear meat can be tasty, skins are beauty -so i don't like the cull, unless they use it wisely. . This town is my space,the local bear huggers, don't have bears in their back yard.
if you let people hike thru Denali, bears must be culled if they are not tourist friendly, as said by Trackersam- ya gotta deal with reality- ya gotta make a choice- is it tourist freindly or a maybe deadly hike . The bear, not the man with the camera, caused the problem, he was within a (3 trailers or more) space - bear should of walked.

snipped...The hiker was backpacking alone along the Toklat River on Friday afternoon when he came within 50 yards of the bear, far closer than the quarter-mile of separation required by park rules, officials said.

...Prior to receiving a permit to hike in the area, all backpackers in the park receive mandatory bear awareness training that teaches them to stay at least a quarter-mile away from bears, and to slowly back away if they find themselves any closer. Investigators confirmed that the hiker had received that training.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/travel...ks+first+fatal+bear+attack/7145890/story.html

:banghead:

Animals being offered food by humans will definitely lose their fear of humans and will begin to relate food to humans. People feeding a wild animal often cause that animal to be killed because it then hangs around people's homes because it wants the food.

lonetraveler said:

Animals being offered food by STUPID humans will definitely lose their fear of STUPID humans and will begin to relate food to STUPID humans. STUPID People feeding a wild animal often cause that animal to be killed because it then hangs around STUPID people's homes because it wants the food.

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red by me

Thank you for adding all the other words...atm & plenty of other times, I can only think of one.

:banghead:

I'm surprised to see more sympathy for the bear than the man.....

tarabull said:

snipped...The hiker was backpacking alone along the Toklat River on Friday afternoon when he came within 50 yards of the bear, far closer than the quarter-mile of separation required by park rules, officials said.

...Prior to receiving a permit to hike in the area, all backpackers in the park receive mandatory bear awareness training that teaches them to stay at least a quarter-mile away from bears, and to slowly back away if they find themselves any closer. Investigators confirmed that the hiker had received that training.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/travel...ks+first+fatal+bear+attack/7145890/story.html

:banghead:

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They say a quarter of a mile so I am going to assume they have a reason for that distance and respect that. Condolences to his family.

mysterygirl said:

I'm surprised to see more sympathy for the bear than the man.....

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It's just an animal doing what it needed to to do to protect itsself from a perceived threat....
The man was stupid and violated the rules of the park. He had a much more advanced brain and knew better.

That's my reasoning anyway